


What Doesn't Kill You...

by Rangergirl3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [19]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Keith (Voltron) Whump, Medical Procedures, Past Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 13:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20779223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: ...might make you wish it had.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by Anon - Secret Caretaking with platonic Keith and Pidge

_Two months before_

On the way back to his room, Keith stopped by Pidge's door and knocked.

When there was no answer, he turned around to leave. In doing so, he saw the time display at the end of the hallway.

It was late. _Really_ late.

Keith thought about knocking again, but decided against it. Finding her family meant everything to Pidge, and she wouldn't appreciate being bothered by an over-protective teammate.

Given that she had missed dinner, again, she was probably trying another tracking algorithm on the latest update to the Galra prisoner database.

He settled for leaving a couple of Altean energy bars outside her door. 

* * *

* * *

_One month before_

Pidge dove for cover as the group of Galra sentries fired directly at her.

Above her on the walkway, Lance shrieked her name in pure terror.

"Pidge! PIDGE!!!"

Gunfire erupted less than a second later.

Hunk tried his best to take down the sentries before they shot her dead.

Pidge swore under her breath. That squadron hadn't shown up in her initial scan of the halls. 

_Were the Galra generals using some kind of cloaking device for their sentries, now that they knew how the Paladins operated?_

She certainly hoped not - that would completely mess up their plan of attack for this mission.

Someone shouted at her to get down, and she hit the floor without hesitation as a red-armored Paladin charged the sentries head-on, his energy shield fully activated. 

"Get her out of here!" Keith shouted at someone over his shoulder. "Go, go, go!"

Pidge thought about firing back a snarky reply, like "Awww, Keeeeeeith, but I gonna ask for _directions_," but she only got out a faint gasp before Shiro had grabbed her by the arm and pulled her around a corner and away from the fire-fight. 

"Katie?"

She didn't understand why Shiro looked scared. 

Everything was fine...right?

Then she tried to get to her feet, and her left leg didn't move.

She frowned down at it. That was _annoying_. Why the hell wouldn't it -

Then Hunk was there, and picking her up, and they were running back towards the Yellow Lion.

She really didn't get it. 

_What was **wrong**?_

She tried to ask, but she couldn't get the words out.

Slowly, the shock was wearing off...and...

Noise. Lots of it. 

Lance and Keith were here now, too. 

They were all tumbling into the Yellow Lion, and then...

* * *

She lost consciousness there for a little bit.

When she opened her eyes again, Hunk was piloting Yellow, Lance was keeping pressure on the wound in her leg, and Shiro was on the comms, telling Allura and Coran to prep a healing pod.

"-went right through - don't think the leg's broken -"

Pidge blinked again, counting. Hunk, up in the pilot's seat. Shiro, on her right. Lance, on her left.

_Where was Keith?_

She looked up.

Keith was kneeling a few feet away from her, one arm outstretched to his side so that his fingers lay on her shoulder. His face was turned away from her, and he'd just frowned down in concentration at some Altean medicine bottle he was holding in his other hand.

She wasn't sure what he was doing until he began speaking again.

"-ainkillers should do something, at least -"

_Painkillers? Who would need -_

Agony stabbed through her, and Pidge's world went white with pain.

Oh, right.

_She did._

After that, Shiro saw that she was awake, and together, Keith and he helped her take the medicine. 

The whole time, Shiro was telling her that it would be fine, that they'd get her into a pod and it would all be fine.

Before the medicine could kick in, though, the Yellow Lion jerked to one side, and Lance's expression twisted in misery as he kept the pressure on her injury.

Pidge screamed, or tried to. Instead, she settled for crying. Every heartbeat sent fresh agony slicing through her leg, and she didn't want to be here. She wanted to be home with her mom and her dad and her brother and her dog. 

She didn't know who, but someone threaded their fingers through hers, and she gripped that person's hand so tightly that the circulation must surely have been cut off.

* * *

The pain meds took effect soon after that, but Pidge still refused to loosen her grip on the hand holding hers.

Shiro had a metal arm, right?

No matter how tightly she held his hand, she couldn't _possibly_ hurt him.

It would be fine.

Probably.

There was another jolt as Yellow landed in his bay, but this time, the pain in her leg was a distant thing, almost not worth noticing.

The thing that she did notice was that while Shiro was the one who carried her to the healing pod, the grip on her hand never wavered. Not once.

* * *

* * *

_The day before_

Pidge's fingers are shaking as she takes out the first bandage from her first-aid kit and lays it over one of the gaping holes in her friend’s torso.

“Coran, I can't - Keith’s injuries - they're - ”

“You don’t have an option, Pidge. You can’t carry him out - ”

A third voice, a weak one.

“…’s okay…’tie…”

She starts in surprise. Keith’s looking back up at her.

_How is he still conscious?_

“…’m…fine…” he chokes out. His teeth are stained as red as his armor. “-‘ts… ge-”

“No, Keith, no,” she tells him. “Just, uh, stay here. Don’t talk, okay? Like, at all.”

He shivers. “…’s…’t…b…b…ad, huh?”

She doesn’t have the heart to lie to him. Not here. Not now.

* * *

Garrison had been supposed to be _safe_.

Instead - 

Shards of Keith's energy shield have embedded themselves into the walls and floor around them.

In all the battles that had come before this, it had never failed him.

Now, after one week back on Earth, the device had failed mid-battle, leaving him wide open to enemy fire.

He'd taken four shots before he managed to get to cover, but...

This wasn't some random accident.

_This was sabatoge._

* * *

He understands her silence, but when he looks back at her, he doesn’t seem scared. 

“…’s fine.”

She shakes her head. 

“No, it’s not. You need a pod, _now_, and I -"

One shoulder twitches. 

“…nah…’s okay…”

She wants to slam her fists against the nearest of the broken rocks around them, but that would tell the enemy sentries where they are, and only hasten their end.

“You _dying_,” she snarls, “- is - is unacceptable. I won’t allow it.”

The laugh he gives is more of a gurgling chuckle.

"-kay..."

"I mean it, Keith," she snarls. Her vision blurs, and she scrubs her eyes with a closed fist before glaring back into Keith's face with an almost feverish intensity.

"If you - if you even think about dying - I'll - I'll - "

He shakes his head, once. 

"...'m hard...to kill...'ember?"

She gulps back tears. 

"Okay then."

When he coughs, it startles her. 

“…’ge…?”

He can’t keep eye contact with her any longer. 

“Keith?”

His head falls forwards onto his chest. 

“_Keith_?!”


	2. Chapter 2

The next time Keith opens his eyes, he's in a cold, white, sterile room, and he's alone.

_He's alone._

Fear forces him into awareness, but his body _aches_ and _hurts_ and -

_His head hurts. He can't even keep his eyes open._

He tries to move, discovers he's secured to a hospital bed. 

_It's his worst nightmare, come back to life._

Panic, real and fierce and based off of awful memories, shoots through him. 

_He **has** to get out of here._

But when he tries to move, agony spears through his skull. The pain is harsh, sudden, relentless, and it terrifies him into stillness and silence.

_He can't even cry._

A memory, faint and hazy and surrounded by pain, ignites inside his mind.

Pidge, crying.

Pidge had been with him.

_So...why isn't she here now?_

* * *

Someone comes into the room, but they don't come near him.

Words filter in through the pain.

_Contamination._

_Proper precautions._

_ _Containment._ _

Keith tries to ask what happened to Pidge, but when he does, no one answers him.

A door swings shut.

_He's alone._

_Again._

* * *

The pain gets worse. 

_It's **always** worse when he's alone._

Fear creeps into his mind, and against his will, Keith begins to tremble. 

_Did something happen to Pidge?_

No, please.

Please, not Pidge. 

_It's his fault._

Please.

_No_.

* * *

Noises echo from somewhere far off in the building. 

Keith doesn't care.

_It's his fault._

_It's his fault Pidge is dead._

She'd tried to help him, and she'd been killed by the same people who thought he was a contagion, the same people who are keeping him here now.

_They're watching him die. _

His head aches, aches, _aches_, but it's his heart that's broken.

He'd give anything to bring her back.

* * *

There's shouting now. Lots of shouting.

Someone opens the door again.

_Keith couldn't care less. _

Then, just for an instant, someone lays a hand on his forehead, but then there's more _noise_, crashing and shrieking and howling, and then they're gone, leaving him alone again.

He keens weakly in distress.

_Come back - please - _

There's no answer.

_\- please - come back - _

Keith can't help it. He starts to cry.

* * *

* * *

_Moments ago_

Pidge is the first Paladin through the door to the isolation room. She wastes no time, but immediately goes over to stand by the hospital bed.

Her first instinct is to swear, colorfully, and vow death and destruction to all who played a part in this sick observation experiment.

But, instead, she lets Keith know she's here by gingerly patting the top of his head gently with the palm of her hand. She does it so carefully, in fact, that her hand is in contact with his skin for less than a second before the door slams open again.

_Damn it, she is **not** good at this care-giving stuff. _

Shiro's a natural, but he's currently slicing through triple-titanium doors and anyone dumb enough to stand between him and his friend, so, Pidge will have to do.

So, first thing's first.

She turns towards the head scientist, who's the entire reason her friend is here in the first place, takes a fighting stance, and activates her bayard.

* * *

_Yesterday, she had thought Keith was dead. _

_By almost every medical definition, he had been._

_But then, **this** sick psychopath had decided that the human race 'didn't have enough data' on just how Galra, or part-Galra, died, so him and his friends from Garrison had brought Keith here, to watch it happen. Again._

* * *

After Pidge finished killing the head 'reasearcher', she turned back towards Keith, who still had his eyes tight shut against the bright lights of the room.

She hurried back over, deactivating her bayard as she went, but keeping it in one hand. If anyone other than Shiro, Lance, or Hunk came through that door, Katie Holt would not hesitate to end them.

**Author's Note:**

> There you are, anon! <3 Hope you enjoyed! :-)
> 
> Comments are amazing and help me stay encouraged/get more ideas for more BTHB prompts!! :D (And help me during the whole-writers-block-thing).
> 
> I'm on Tumblr - come say hi!


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